ust home after a long absence. Fully twenty minutes this went
on, and Mr. Hoar, the president of the convention after vainly trying to
restore order gave up in despair, sat down, and calmly allowed disorder
to tire itself out.

At last it ceases, Ohio is called, a form arises near the center of the
middle aisle, and moves toward the stage amid the clapping of thousands
of hands, which increases as General Garfield mounts the same platform
upon which Senator Conkling has so lately stood. In speaking he is not
so restless as was Conkling, but speaking deliberately he appeals to the
judgment of the masses, as follows:

"Mr. President: I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of this
convention with deep solicitude. No emotion touches my heart more
quickly than a sentiment in honor of a great and noble character. But,
as I sat on these seats and witnessed these demonstrations, it seemed to
me you were a human ocean in a tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into
a fury and tossed into a spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the
dullest man. But I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm
level of the sea from which all heights and depths are measured. When
the storm had passed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, when
sunlight bathes its smooth surface, then the astronomer and surveyor
takes the level from which he measures all terrestrial heights and
depths. Gentlemen of the convention, your present temper may not mark
the healthful pulse of our people. When our enthusiasm has passed, when
the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall find the calm level of
public opinion below the storm from which the thoughts of a mighty
people are to be measured, and by which their final action will be
determined. Not here, in this brilliant circle where fifteen thousand
men and women are assembled, is the destiny of the Republic to be
decreed; not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces of seven hundred
and fifty-six delegates waiting to cast their votes into the urn and
determine the choice of their party; but by four million Republican
firesides, where the thoughtful fathers, with wives and children about
them, with the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and love of
country, with the history of the past, the hopes of the future, and the
knowledge of the great men who have adorned and blessed our nation in
days gone by--there God prepares the verdict that shall determine the
wisdom of our work to-night. Not